Small selection of web design, usability, and accessibility related results of research, most of them derived from Human Factors International (newsletter). Fortunately, some of them are relatively popular, while others will surely enrich professional self-conception:

1. Design is a key determinant to building online trust with consumers. For motivated users of an information site, bad design (busy layout, small print, too much text) hurts more than good design helps. – Sillence, Briggs, Fishwick, and Harris, 2004.

   Also see Stanford University’s “Guidelines for Web Credibility”.

2. Layout on a web page (whitespace and advanced layout of headers, indentation, and figures) may not measurably influence performance, but it does influence satisfaction. – Chaperro, Shaikh, and Baker, 2005.
3. Experience matters: Blue links are easier to click than black ones, even though black ones have higher visual contrast and are easier to see. – Van Schaik and Ling, 2003.
4. It’s important to consider the users when you have a choice of icons, links, or both. Initial performance is best with the link alone. Frequent users can use either equally effectively. Icons are not faster, relative to text links alone. – Wiedenbeck, 1999.
5. Rules of thumb for icons: Make them as large as feasible, place frequently used icons in a persistent task bar, and arrange them either in a square (first choice) or in a horizontal layout. – Grobelny, Karwowski, and Drury, 2005.
6. The acceptance and impact of animation is enhanced when users are warned to expect it and allowed to start it when they want. – Weiss, Knowlton, and Morrison, 2002.
7. Use of whitespace between paragraphs and in the left and right margins increases comprehension by almost 20 %. – Lin, 2004.
8. A format of 95 characters per line is read significantly faster than shorter line lengths; however, there are no significant differences in comprehension, preference, or overall satisfaction, regardless of line length. – Shaikh, 2005.
9. Applications vs. websites: In general, visual layout guidelines for GUIs also apply to the web, but there are differences to be aware of. For example, dense pages with lots of links take longer to scan for both GUI and web; however, alignment may not be as critical for web pages as previously thought. – Parush, Shwarts, Shtub, and Chandra, 2005.
10. Narrative presentation enhances comprehension and memory. Narrative advertisements produce more positive attitude about the brand and a higher incidence of intent to purchase. – Escalas, 2004.
11. On sites with clear labels and prominent navigation options, users tend to browse rather than search. Searching is no faster than browsing in this context. – Katz and Byrne, 2003.
12. Users will wait longer for better content. Users will wait between 8-10 seconds for information on the web, depending on the quality of the information. – Ryan and Valverde, 2003.
13. Consumer purchase behavior is driven by perceived security, privacy, quality of content and design, in that order. – Ranganathan and Ganapathy, 2002.
14. In 2001, Bernard found that prior user experience with websites dictated where they expected common web page elements to appear on a page. The same still holds true today: Users have clear expectations about where to find the things they want (search and back-to-home links) as well as the things they want to avoid (advertising). – Shaihk and Lenz, 2006.
15. When assessing web accessibility under four conditions (expert review, screenreader using JAWS, automated testing via “Bobby”, and remote testing by blind users) those using screenreaders find the most issues, while automated testing finds the least number of accessibility issues. – Mankoff, Fait, and Tran, 2005.

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Fluent, a new Razorfish report, examines the rise of Social Influence Marketing – the method of employing social media and social influencers to meet a company’s business and marketing objectives. The report features a new proprietary survey that explores how social media informs consumer purchase behavior, and introduces the SIM Score – a new benchmark Razorfish developed to measure a brand’s social influence and favorability relative to its competitors.

Razorfish surveyed 1,000 consumers who reported both social media and e-commerce activity, in an effort to discover how social media and different social influencers affect purchasing decisions.

Razorfish developed a new index, the SIM Score, to determine how a brand is being talked about online. Collaborating with partners TNS Cymfony and the Keller Fay Group, Razorfish measured two factors, “reach” and “likeability,” to establish a brand’s SIM Score relative to its competitors. Recognizing the obvious problem of discounting offline influence, Razorfish also factored in word-of-mouth data from the real world. This report determined a SIM Score of five to six companies within four industries - financial services, pharmaceuticals, media and auto.

View The Report Here

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Why bother exploring social media as a marketing channel for your website or dealership? After all, you could stick to link exchanges, search advertising or the purchase of banner and editorial ads on relevant sites.

Here are some reasons why you should consider using social media:

1. It’s natural. Not only do you get natural links without any discernible pattern, your website is exposed to large groups of people in a spontaneous fashion. This differs from paid advertising which has overt commercial overtones.

1. It’s defensible. Once successfully mastered, social communities can be a great source of web traffic on top of any traffic you are already receiving from search engines. While you can’t easily increase your search engine traffic, social media traffic can be very easily controlled through strategic marketing.

1. It’s low-cost/high returns. If done by yourself, costs are limited to only time and perhaps the expenses involved in hiring a freelance programmer/designer/agency. The benefits will often exceed the cost. It would take you thousands of dollars to buy many links; social media has the ability to give you that for free.

1. It complements other efforts. Social media optimization and marketing is usually community-specific. It doesn’t interfere with any other methods of getting traffic to your website. It can and will fit perfectly with an advertising campaign targeting other websites or search engines.

So How Does Social Media Help Me to Make Money?

It doesn’t. At least not directly. Every site or business that wants to expand and become profitable, needs a core group of supporters who will be willing to make purchases or recommend the site to others. Your site needs to perpetuate itself.

The more supporters you have, the faster word spreads about your site. Social media marketing is an excellent way to get people to come into your site to take a look at at what you have to offer. You will grow when there are a group of loyal visitors ready to always act upon what you have to offer.

Because social media websites can be leveraged for links and better search rankings, they can greatly increase your site’s income potential. For example, you will be able to price ads higher or generate revenue from any paid business models.

Sources: www.doshdosh.com

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Two way conversations
You must listen and respond to your customers. Social Media is not  like setting up a poll on your site.  Having conversations which flow in both directions help you understand the concerns of your customers, why they exist and what you can do to fix them.

The personal touch
Automated responses and standard letters are a great way to sabotage your Social media marketing campaign. Social Media is about equal conversations and recommendation. Just think, would you rather purchase a new camera from a friend who recommends it or an automated newsletter?

Be a part of the community
Acknowledge others in the community which offer value to your business. Take some time to really be a part of the community and share useful knowledge. Personality goes a long way. It’s a bit like making friends; you have give a little to receive. You never know, you may build useful networks that extend offline. If you begin your campaign pushing only your content and disregarding the community, you will be dead on arrival.

A successful Social Media campaign can prove to be one of the key catalysts in growth for a small to medium sized business. It can increase brand exposure and PR for a fraction of traditional advertising costs and effort, as well as provide large scale market research and product refinement ideas at no extra charge.

Soon,  SMM will join SEO as being important aspects of any site owner’s marketing strategy. The speed in which trends evolve on the internet is can often be daunting, but SMM by large companies can be emulated in whole or in part even by very small businesses. It’s not the money. It’s the content marketing mindset that separates success and failure.

Big ideas can beat big budgets.

Source from : socialmediatrader.com

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Social media marketing, which is quickly becoming known to be the modern Industrial Revolution,  is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels such as Twitter, MySpace, FaceBook, Digg, StumbleUpon, Plurk, Etc.  It is undoubtedly one of the most powerful strategies that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily expose your dealership brand online and potentially have customers visiting your website over and over.

When creating posts  of your specials, vehicles or dealer news throughout your Social Media networks, there will be two things to expect:

• Primary and Secondary Traffic. Primary traffic is the large amount of visitors who come directly from social media websites. Secondary traffic is referral traffic from websites which link to and send you visitors, after they come across your content through the social sites.

• High Quality Links. Becoming popular on social news websites like Digg or Reddit will get you a large number of links, some of which may be topically relevant, some not. A good story can realistically acquire a large number of high quality editorial links, most of which cannot be easily bought.

Now let’s translate this into tangible benefits for your dealer website:

1. Links = Better Search Engine Rankings.

When a website receives a large number of natural, permanent links from trusted domains, it develops authority. Search engines trust it. If you optimize your link posts and website structure properly, you can easily start ranking for competitive keywords, which will in turn bring in search engine visitors.

Do this often enough and your search traffic will undoubtedly increase. In a sense, you are obtaining these quality links through borrowed trust. Many online surfers think that if an article is posted by one of their friends or a notable website, then it’s probably worth checking out and referencing through a citation link.

A new website may find it difficult to gain links from a critical mass that is not familiar with it but a trusted social news resource makes it easier for links to come in, because the community and buzz has somewhat ‘certified‘ the value of the site. Note that the actual strength of the article is still of utmost importance for all.

2. Primary + Secondary Traffic = Community/Supporters.

Some people claim that social news websites only send useless traffic, visitors that will often just view a specific webpage and click away. Yes, that’s usually the case. Sites like Digg are notorious for their poor bounce rates: many visitors drop in for the article and then leave after reading it. StumbleUpon(www.StumbleUpon.Com) is much better in this aspect.

But don’t mistake this with a lack of interest. Your subscriber figures will often take big jump up and then stabilize after a few days. If your entire site is relevant to the general interests of the social media website, there will always be a handful of social users who will start to track your site in order to submit future content.

Detractors also ignore the power of ultra targeted secondary traffic. General sites or blogs in the same niche will link to a story that’s popular on social sites, because it adds value for their readers or users. This is done naturally on a daily basis for many.

While primary traffic usually comes in a larger volume, I would argue that secondary traffic is more valuable. Why? Because links from other websites bring visitors who are very likely to be interested in your content. These citation links demonstrate recognition of your site in the eyes of others. It builds your brand.

Think of the social news site as a platform or a soapbox. As something that gives you a chance to be heard or read, even for a brief moment of a few hours. The people who are drawn to your message will visit your site and recommend it to others.

Source from www.doshdosh.com

Check out this interesting video on the statistics of Social Media.

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Cash for Clunkers

Unless you live under a rock, and maybe even then, you’ve probably heard about the Cash for Clunkers program in the last month. The program, which ran from June 22nd to August 24th, created a buzz that was hard to ignore. In fact, the government reports that their official Cash for Clunkers Web site had 16 million hit in that time alone. The endless news coverage and press only helped to add to the excitement.

In addition to grabbing headlines, Cash for Clunkers also brought significant business to auto dealerships. Customers flocked in, looking to trade their old cars and trucks for new ones, and maybe get a little incentive money in the process.

Now that the dust has settled, it is interesting to take a look at what the Cash for Clunkers program actually achieved. The official government Web site has a press release detailing the cars sold and traded in during the program.* Here are a few of the highlights:

• Around 700,000 cars were traded in as clunkers.
• 4% of the clunkers were trucks, and 59% of the people trading them in purchased passenger vehicles.
• Rebate applications were worth 2.877 Billion.
• The average fuel economy for the cars traded in was 15.8 MPG, the average fuel economy of their new car was 24.9 MPG.
• The Toyota Corolla was the most popular new vehicle with those taking advantage of the program.
• The Ford Explorer 4WD was the number one car traded in.

Whether or not you agree with the politics of the Cash for Clunkers program, there is no denying that it made a significant impact on the auto industry. It generated buzz and excitement for new vehicles and brought in consumers. According to the data above, it also appeared to achieve its goal of getting cars with poor fuel economy off the road. How the program’s impact lasts in the months to come remains to be seen.

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John Coyne

John Coyne joins our company in the role of Campaign Coordinator and will be working closely with Tiffany on all of our PPC campaigns. Most recently he was in a Marketing Operations role for a company called VUDU, where he ran their PPC campaigns as well as over saw the implementation of Google Analytics.

Martin Ozolins

Martin Ozolins is our new Network Engineer. Martin has 18 years of experience designing and implementing multi-platform Network Operation Centers, production facilities and LAN/WAN infrastructures worldwide. He will be helping us out on a temporary basis, working with the engineering team on a project for the next few months, and it’s possible we’ll find enough work to keep him on long-term!

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Around the first of August word began spreading about Google’s newest generation of search engine, tentatively named Caffeine. If you haven’t heard of Caffeine yet don’t feel bad. Google is still only in testing mode and has been keeping the whole thing pretty quiet.

But knowing Google it won’t be a secret for long. Caffeine is an attempt to keep the market share Bing and Yahoo have teamed up to take from them. It’s also Google’s attempt to build a fast, better, and more accurate Search Engine. According to Google’s official blog:

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”*

So how does it stack up? Mashable, a popular Blog, did a detailed test of the new engine. They found that it was faster, and more accurate than the old version of Google. For instance, a search for the definition of dog brought back 359,000,000 results in .12 seconds on Caffeine. On the old it only brought 51,900,000 and took .25 seconds.

How Caffeine will affect the future of Search Engines remains to be seen, but the early reports seem to indicate that Google is raising the bar yet again. At the very least, we can all look forward to searches getting faster and more accurate, and no one would argue that’s a bad thing.

Curious about Caffeine? Try it yourself here.

*http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/08/help-test-some-next-generation.html

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The 2010 car models are here. With MPG still a very big factor in determining which cars we buy, let’s take a look at a few of the 2010 coupe models logging 30-40 MPG.

'10 Cobalt

2010 Chevrolet Cobalt

The 2010 Cobalt is a 2- or 4-door, 5-passenger family coupe, or family sedan, available in 9 trims, ranging from the Base Coupe to the SS Turbocharged Coupe.

Upon introduction, the Base Coupe is equipped with a standard 2.2-liter, I4, 155-horsepower engine that achieves 25-mpg in the city and 35-mpg on the highway. The SS Turbocharged Coupe is equipped with a standard 2.0-liter, I4, 260-horsepower, turbo engine that achieves 22-mpg in the city and 30-mpg on the highway. A 5-speed manual transmission with overdrive is standard on both trims.

The 2010 Cobalt is a carryover from 2009.

'10 Focus

2010 Ford Focus

The 2010 Focus is a 2- or 4-door, 5-passenger family coupe, or family sedan, available in 6 trims, ranging from the SE Coupe to the SEL Sedan.

Upon introduction, both trims are equipped with a standard 2.0-liter, I4, 140-horsepower engine. A 5-speed manual transmission with overdrive is standard, and a 4-speed automatic transmission with overdrive is optional.

The 2010 Focus is a carryover from 2009.

'10 Genesis

2010 Hyundai Genesis

The 2010 Genesis comes standard with enough room for 4 passengers, a Manual transmission, a L4 engine, and a RWD drivetrain. . You can compare the Hyundai with other submodels, and find other information on this Coupe like photos, specs, rebates & incentives, crash test ratings and safety facts, basic warranty of 5 yr. / 60,000 mi, EPA fuel economy rating and gas mileage of 30 miles per gallon, and much more.

*Car descriptions courtesy of autos.yahoo..com

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“Trying to increase sales simply by driving more traffic to a website with a poor customer conversion rate is like trying to keep a leaky bucket full by adding more water instead of plugging the holes.” - Bryan Eisenberg

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